


Starlight

by Cornonlecob



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender, Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Airbender Finland, Avatar Iceland, Avatar Nordics!AU, But Also Everything, But it's not actually death?, Earthbender Sweden, Firebender Denmark, Gen, Human Names sort of, Inverted Typo's AU, Kinda Spiritual? Sort Of??, Memories, Minor Character Death, Minor Focus on Relationships, Oneshot, Southern Water Tribe, The Author Regrets Nothing, Waterbender Norway, poorly written fight scenes, the ending is weird
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-01
Updated: 2017-06-01
Packaged: 2018-11-07 18:53:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,370
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11065050
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cornonlecob/pseuds/Cornonlecob
Summary: "Avatar Emil, what did you ever do?" The old man asked, tea poised happily on his open palm.Emil shrugged, slightly frowning down at his own steaming tea. "Oh, you know, lots of things, spent time with my brother, traveled around, closed some portals.""Well, we certainly have eternity, may I hear your stories?" The man pressed, a soft weary smile tugging his white beard further up his face."For an old man you sure do have a great attention span. I suppose I should start from when I was first learning water bending. Here, I'll just project it for you."





	Starlight

**Author's Note:**

> This was totally based on Inverted-Typo's Nordic Avatar AU...or well...all the artwork that they created for it. Here's their Tumblr page, knock yourselves out; http://inverted-typo.tumblr.com
> 
> Human names, to an extent, are going to be used. This'll probably only be a one shot but d: oh well.

 

-

_"Now, push the water back and forth, move it slowly and carefully. This isn't something you can force."_

 

_The small wave, if you could even really call it that, situated right on the edge of the Southern Water Tribe wavered, jerking back and forth as if unsure of itself. That's silly, he knows it's silly, but the fact that the water just wouldn't listen made him feel pretty unsure himself._

 

_"Breathe, let it flow like the melted snow off a tarp."_

 

 _The words were calm and monotonous and so_ very _unhelpful. He felt his own face scrunch up with effort, attempting to pull the water back and forth, yearning for that smooth transition his brother could somehow perform. With his frustration, the water quivered, pulling upwards in a small spiral. For that split second Emil felt himself relax, begin to smile and-_

 

_The pretty spiral sputtered before dropping into the water unassuming and barely rippling._

 

 _He was on the verge of angry tears. Why wouldn't it just_ listen _and follow what he wanted it to do? Why was the stupid water so hard to hold onto and form and do_ anything _with! Why was Luka so good at this junk! If_ Luka _could be that good then why couldn't he be too!_

 

_"Shh, shh, Emil please don't cry over this." Smooth warm hands cupped Emil's young cheeks, holding them gently and somehow commanding his ears to listen. Luka's thumbs swept over Emil's cheeks, brushing away the only water he could ever get to move. "This is a beautiful first step, you're making progress my little starlight."_

 

_Emil sniffed up the stray snot that threatened to spill down his face, eyes scrunched up with water steadily slipping out. His bright violet eyes were blurry with tears, his face pulled taught in distress. "Luka!" He cried, letting gravity pull him further into his brother's hands. "I've-I've been on step one forever n-now! Why can't I do it?" The young child wailed, his small hands reaching up and clenching tightly around Luka's warm blue tunic._

 

_Emil felt his brother's hands drift up from his cheeks into his hair and down along his back, pulling him into his brother's waiting arms. "That's okay Emil, you'll get it in time. Sometimes," he started, an uncommon smile pulling itself onto his face, "the most powerful people take the longest to get there. Don't cry over this. You'll get there."_

-

Emil felt this memory bubble to the forefront of his brain. Eyes trailing back briefly to his brother, fighting and spinning, sending water flashing out from his fingertips in deadly ice. Once again, Emil was reminded of how beautiful his brother was, so graceful he could have been a water spirit in his past life and no one would be the wiser.

 

Luka had long since shed his dark blue thick coats, arms wrapped down to his knuckles in deep ocean blue, his shirt cropped short and jagged. Masato was the one who altered the outfit for him.

 

A fireball whizzed past his face, nearly scorching Emil's silvery hair as it blew by.

 

Oh right.

 

Masato.

-

 

 _When Luka had said he '_ knew some old friends in the Earth Kingdom' _Emil certainly hadn't expected Masato._

 

 _Twelve years old and able to sustain a water bubble, Emil was more than surprised to see one of Luka's friends be..._ Masato, given all the people Luka had befriended back home. Masato just seemed out of place. _._

 

_Masato was loud and crude, open in personality and fashion sense, exposing his broad chest for all to see. He was acrobatic and deadly as the fire he controlled, easily as brash as it too._

 

_Masato clapped him on the back._ **Hard** _._

 

_Emil lurched forwards, righting himself quickly and shooting a glare over his shoulder._

 

 _Masato just threw his spiky golden head backwards and_ laughed.

 

_Luka looked ready to begin chuckling himself, his smile hid behind a tasteful hand._

 

_As Masato began to teach Emil fire bending, they slowly grew closer. While Emil had grown colder in personality, he had to admit he began to build a soft spot for the slightly older bender. He also wasn't blind when it came to Masato's advances on Luka which were...half heartedly returned at best._

 

_Emil found that while water was hard to grasp, slippery and thick, fire was quick to jump through his veins. It used the water that was naturally imprinted in his blood like a starter and raged from finger to belly back to finger. Fire jumped from his hands and spun gleefully between his toes._

 

 _Masato was quick to approve, moving with him in dragon-like stances. He cackled and roared and was just so_ warm _, Emil could've sworn raw fire raged behind Masato's unnaturally blue eyes once._

 

_Luka and Masato grew closer too, opposites seemed to attract after all._

 

_Emil often found himself outside practicing when they started getting mushy together. Masato would come out soon after, making sure everyone knew just how big his heart was. It just kept expanding. Emil was proud to be in that humongous heart, wormed happily in next to his brother as Masato spread his knowledge and love into their family._

-

Masato wasn't too far away, lurching forwards onto his hands with fire trailing after his arched feet. Hurling the fireball straight towards an enemy in a completely improvised sort of front flip. For some reason, even though they were all in the heat of battle, Masato was grinning.

 

A vicious grin that split his face as he split other people's bones.

 

His fire raged around and within him in such a way that made his silhouette practically burn in the setting sun.

 

The hiss of the spirit portal releasing the heavy souls snapped Emil's attention back onto it. Enough reminiscing he growled, pushing back on the souls, his hands burning atop the portals glowing light.

 

Emil felt his own soul being tugged into the portal, his body quaking as the soul within yearned to be pulled out.

 

Bertolt flicked the back of his head with a stray pebble, shocking Emil back into his body with a renewed sense of anger. He must have been screaming or...something to grab Berwald's attention like that.

 

Bertolt always had a knack for knowing exactly what to do even during the most hectic of times.

-

_"Ow! Ber, what the heck!" A not so young Emil asked hotly, rubbing the back of his head where a rock had just hit. Bertolt just stood still from far away, arms crossed and expression stern._

 

_"You were not concentrate-ing." He said simply, shrugging and sending another pebble flying with a twist of his ankle. It thwacked Emil right in the forehead, a red spot already forming as the rock bounced off and away._

 

_He hadn't been learning earth for very long, but Emil could tell it wouldn't be as fun as fire bending. At least with Masato they worked together and created something new each time. Earth just seemed so...repetitive. But Masato wasn't here, it was just Emil and Bertolt. Emil knew that his brother and the fire bender were off being happy and mushy, and he really wanted to be happy for them back! Honestly! But he couldn't help but feel just the littlest bit betrayed when they just dropped him in Ber's lap and went galavanting off hand in ha-_

 

_"Ow! Would you stop that!" Emil hissed, catching another rock off his shoulder. He rubbed at the agitated skin, glaring across the quarry._

 

_Bertolt didn't seem to care too much. "You need to ground yourself. Stop think-ing and start do-ing." He instructed, shifting down and pulling a wide stance. With a firm punch a sizeable rock ripped itself from the ground. Without batting an eyelash, Bertolt sent it hurtling towards Emil._

 

_He'd scrunched up his face in surprise and fear, dropping down low and wide and thrusting his hands out in front of him as if the water he was used to being surrounded by wasn't days away. The rock, surprisingly, didn't make any squashed avatars. Instead it hovered in the air, quivering slightly, but hovering nonetheless._

 

_Bertolt smiled, it was the kind of smile Emil was used to seeing mirrored on his brother's face. It made his lungs relax, his stance deflate slightly, and got his face to smooth itself out._

 

_For some reason, Emil found himself smiling back._

-

The burning on his hands was getting harder to ignore. It rippled across his fingers and palms, pulling away ribbons of skin so thin it was hard to tell it was being lost at all. Blood started to appear in tiny drops inside the portal.

 

Emil blinked tears of pain away from his eyes, the dust swirling around already made it hard to see. Grounding himself only seemed to make the tugging in his chest worsen. Bertolt has told him how to stay in reality, but that just made his soul all the more eager to bridge over to the new world.

 

Emil's chest burned as he heaved for air, every ounce of energy focused on closing the Southern Water Tribe's spirit portal. He couldn't be sure what was happening beyond himself and the portal, vaguely aware of an ice prison beginning to build itself.

 

The tearing ripping burning in his chest wouldn't go away. He had to let go. Bertolt's way wasn't helping, but maybe Tyso's would.

-

 _Emil had decided early on that Tyso was nice. Easy to get along with, and even easier to learn from. Tyso the monk was at times, the most and_ least _monk-ly out of all the other air nomads._

 

_There was a time when Tyso had led Emil on a three day meditation journey. Exploring chakras, souls, and the world as it grew._

 

 _Emil couldn't say he enjoyed the whole '_ going without anything to eat or drink really _' for three days. But surprisingly, the journey was over sooner than expected._

 

_Of course afterwards Tyso helped make some great pies which they happily ate together under the shade of a tree._

 

_It was under such a tree that Emil decided to ask something that had been bugging him for a while._

 

_"The world. It's so peaceful, growing and thriving together. I know you've seen it, the whole world, being peaceful." Emil started, hands twisted around each other in his lap. "So what's my purpose? I love that the world is at peace but...is there really any reason for me to exist?"_

 

_Tyso hadn't answered, not that day and not the next._

 

_Emil shrugged off the silence and continued with his teachings, eventually forgetting he'd even asked._

 

_It wasn't until Tyso had pulled him aside right before Luka, Masato, and Bertolt were all supposed to arrive that he answered._

 

_He'd tugged Emil off into a corner, a smile on his face and care in his eyes. The monk had hesitantly braced his arms on Emil's shoulders, keeping eye contact as long as possible._

 

_"Peace, is not your ultimate goal. Simply because it is everyone's." Emil just stared up at Tyso, eyes wide out of sheer surprise. "If everyone in the world has somehow achieved that goal, only then will your purpose be void. But that's impossible, because there will always be someone unable to achieve their peace. Whether this life or the next, you will always be needed so long as others hunger, children steal, and parents walk away."_

 

_The way Tyso had said it was so full of sincerity Emil couldn't do anything less than believe in him._

~~~

The portal's light was dimming over the horizon. The spirit Luka had been fighting was wavering, unable to exist in the real world without the portal's energy.

 

Luka felt his chest swell with pride, Emil was _doing_ it! His own _brother_ , the avatar _of all things_ , was saving the world; just like Luka had known he would all those years ago. The light from the portal flickered just as the ice beneath his boots began to crack.

 

Luka felt his eyes widen, starting forward to where he could see his brother's form standing, wavering through the swirling dust. He stopped as large ice hands jerked out of the frozen lake. They clasped around each other, creating a perfect dome.

 

Too perfect.

 

So perfect, it was like a snow globe, only this time there was his brother stuck inside.

 

Without so much of a thought Luka was sprinting forward, running so fast he could feel his chest ache after barely a few seconds of running. But that didn't matter, no no, _nothing_ would matter if he couldn't get there in time.

 

He barely heard shouts from Masato and maybe probably Tyso somewhere but Luka just didn't care.

 

He ran smack into the ice, banging his fists against it uselessly. It wouldn't listen to him it wouldn't, why-

 

Emil turned towards where Luka was staring, calm for no reason when he should have been running forwards like Luka just did. Emil smiled gently, the glow of the avatar state leaving his violet eyes. His form shivered, as if a soul could become cold trapped within ice.

 

Emil waved, such a slow motion, and Luka wouldn't take that no! No, _no waving_ no saying goodbye there _can't_ be any of that it's too soon, too soon.

 

With a flash of white light Emil was, not there.

 

Luka glanced upward hopefully, tears gathering gathering about to spill. He had to choke back a cry, a brand new star was glistening beautifully right above him. It was the perfect shade of silver, just like Emil's hair.

 

That...that can't just be the end.

 

Luka felt a sturdy hand he knew belonged to Masato settle on his back and it took every ounce of life left in his limbs to not collapse right there.

 

In the end it didn't matter, his legs gave out and suddenly Masato was there and they were hugging but it didn't matter.

 

Tyso was leaning into Bertolt's side but it didn't matter.

 

They fought and they won and the portal was sealed but it _didn't matter_.

 

Luka swore, whatever life they found together next, this time he wouldn't let Emil get hurt or taken away _ever again_.

-

 

**Author's Note:**

> Once again, based on Inverted Typo's artwork for this au. Luka is Norway, Masato is Denmark, Bertolt is Sweden, and Tyso is Finland if you didn't catch that. Ahem, hope that was...semi enjoyable at the very least. This will probably stay as a one shot for the rest of time, but I hope I did the art justice with this story!
> 
> Thanks for reading!


End file.
